The Onion Ring

The Onion Ring

By Robert Peterson

Kathy and I drove to Wisconsin last weekend to visit her father. We knew the drive was long--more than seven hours--so we didn't want to stop very long for dinner. As much as Kathy hates fast food, we decided to expedite the trip and stop at the Hardee's restaurant in Hinckley, Minnesota. Among other things, I ordered some onion rings, and they were the first item to be delivered.

As we stood in the restaurant waiting for the rest of our order to be filled, I reached inside the box and pulled out an onion ring. I'd never seen an onion ring like this: it had a bridge of batter on the inside.

I'm a firm believer that things happen for a reason. Anyone who has read my book Answers Within will tell you that I love to find spiritual metaphors in everything around me. The Universe is sending us messages all the time, disguised as ordinary things; we just need to pay attention to the signs.

So when I looked at this odd onion ring, I immediately thought that it resembled the Greek letter Theta. That made me think of Theta brain waves, which signify the bridge between sleeping and waking. Often, out-of-body experiences occur during Theta sleep. Was the Universe telling me something? Perhaps to focus more on my theta brain waves?

But maybe it wasn't a Theta after all. It seemed to me that the onion ring also looked kind of like the Greek letter Omega, in lower case. In the Bible, Revelation 1:8, God reportedly said, "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending" so maybe this was a message from God: We are infinite beings, and we can stretch our consciousness to infinity.

I pondered all these deep thoughts, then I pointed to the onion ring and said, "Hey, look at this onion ring!"

Kathy saw the ordinary object with an unusual feature. "So?"

The cashier gave a bubbly laugh and said, "That's a 'Do Not' symbol! You know: a circle with a diagonal slash through it." Realizing the negativity she was implying, she added, "It means 'Do not leave the store without eating it!'" and we all laughed.

I pondered how remarkable it was that we can all see the same things, and yet interpret them different ways. I chose to see the OBE potential, the spiritual--even God--in that simple onion ring. Kathy chose to see the ordinary; the food. The cashier chose to see a message of negativity, and then she had to release everyone from her negativity.

As the metal band Savatage puts it, you "see what you want to see". You do it all throughout your life. You can choose to see the negative, the positive, or even the sacred in all things. And all those thoughts will draw you to negative, positive or even sacred experiences.

2013 May 30